Gorgeous Nightmare
by ShadowXNight13
Summary: Let's say SS had a girl named Cecilia. She manages to get out before her dad, 5 years before. Things quickly turn sour and full of crimson for the young girl. Crimson littering the ground of the wasteland is common. Even when she meets a gunslinger of sorts. This isn't a typical "love" story. It's full to the brim with guns, murder, and most importantly, blood.
1. Lullaby

This is a story that'll take 260 years ago. "Nate are you certain about this?" a young girl, no older than 19 was sitting hand in hand with a boy that seemed around her age, she had a hint of worry in her eyes. She was looking at the sunset from the park that they were sitting in, on a green painted bench. "You're going to be shipped off next month. Plus I start school next month as well Nate" She turned her head to look at the boy with her hazel eyes, mixtures of green and blue with a small hint of brown, a frown on her face. "I don't want to have to force you to do this."

The boy who she was looking at, was staring off into the sunset, a conflicted look in his eyes before he turned to look at the girl. "Nora... You know very well people will look down on you if we don't get married. It's reasonable! We can always say it happened after we married." he was trying to figure out ways in his head, to make sense of how this happened, he didn't even mention this to his parents yet. He didn't want to. "We were going to get married after I left the service, you know that. So, it's not entirely a forced decision." He sighed out softly, messing with the freshly done buzz cut, his black hair darker now that it's shorter.

"Nate, honey. I don't want this, we're going to be busy. You're going to be in the army, I'm studying for my law degree, not to mention working." she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the next thing she's going to say will be something she never thought she'd have to do. "I.. I know some people who can... end it... for a small fee." Nate looked at his girlfriend with horror in his eyes, he didn't want that! "Don't give me that look! We both know this pregnancy wasn't planned!" She let go of his hand and stood up from the green bench, holding her chest tightly, her blonde hair covering her face as she looked at the floor.

"Nora." Nate softly said her name as he got up from the bench, slowly wrapping his hands around her small body, his chest up against her back. "Don't even think about something like that... Alright?" He placed his chin on her head and sighed softly, he didn't want this pregnancy but he didn't like the idea of abortion either. He had enough people to kill when he leaves for the war, that was certain, he didn't want to kill something that doesn't even have a heartbeat yet. "I'll send money that could help out with the child, alright?"

Nora turned around so she was facing Nate, her boyfriend, "I don't care about the money! You.. You're going to be gone. I won't be able to spend time with it. I don't know if i can do it alone!" she started to shake in his arms, tears now starting to fall down her cheeks as she thought of the hard times ahead, not just for her, but also for him. "I don't want this child to grow up alone, Nathan..." Nora rarely used his full name, only when she was mad or serious about the situation. Burying her crying face into the brown jacket he was wearing, she breathed in the scent of the man she loved since she was 15, 4 years now.

"We have no choice, Nora just listen to me. Let's just get married tomorrow morning at town hall. I'll spend as much time as possible with you before I have to leave next month. I promise. Alright?" he was trying to calm down his Nora, he didn't want her getting so upset over something like this, it was huge, yes. But Nora was always the calm one out of them, thinking things over clearly. He was the reason they got into this mess... Nora looked up at Nate's face, into his soft green eyes. Her eyes asking him if he was telling the truth about what he just said. Nate smiled gently and lowered his head a bit, placing a gentle kiss on her lips. "I do." He grinned softly as he slowly unwrapped his arms around her small body, now holding her hand once more. "Come one, let's go get some dinner at the diner."

"I'm going to miss you, Nate you have to write every day! Understood?" The two month pregant Nora had a sad smile on her face while her palm was cupping Nate's cheek. Nate didn't say anything as he placed a hand on her shoulder, his other hand had his fingers underneath her chin. "You're going to be gone for 10 years, i don't think I can stand not hearing from you for that long!" she whined softly, giving him a look on her thin pretty lips that looked like a small pout. She was trying to keep it together but when he kissed her forehead, she broke down a bit, crying softly, holding on to the army green jacket he was now wearing. His favorite brown jacket in her arms, she didn't want him to take it since she would use it to feel better.

"Nora, don't cry alright? I'll write and I'll video you every chance I got. Even if the boys will make fun of me, okay?" Nate was trying to stop his new bride from crying all her makeup off, and staining his new jacket. Nora looked up from his chest, placing her chin on his chest, her eyes asking him, "promise?" Nate sighed softly, "Yes yes, I promise. I got to go now!" he gently pulled him off of her and planted a quick kiss on her lips. Grabbing his bag that was leaning on his left foot, he quickly ran off to the airplane entrance, where a group of boys wearing army greens was waving him down. The moment that he went past that gate, Nora wouldn't see her husband for at least 10 years.

"Nora! Do you have a name decided for your baby girl?" a rather overly excited brunette was standing next to Nora, her pink painted finger nail poking her arm. "Come on! I want to know already!" she was begging, her whines getting louder with every passing moment that Nora ignored her. "NORA!" she finally got to the point she yelled her ear, causing the 8 month pregnant women to sigh heavily and closed her book with a loud flump. Her glares were ignored by the annoying lady that was still poking her arm, pretty much now giving her a bruise on her soft skin. "TELL ME!"

"Alright alright, will you finally shut up and let me study if I tell you?" Nora was mad, the tone in her voice making it quite obvious. She was tapping her unpainted nail very impatiently on the closed, and rather thick, law book on the table. The brunette nodded viciously and her whines were heard once more, her hands clapped together in front of her face. Nora didn't understand why this girl was bothering her like this anyways, she didn't talk to her before this, at least out of class. Turning her head to the lady, she took a deep breath and said, "I don't have a name decided yet. Happy? Leave me alone." She regretted walking into the diner where now, she didn't think that she'd be bothered by the waitress.

She reopened her book and was about to read once more when a hand slammed onto the page, blocking the small printed words. "What? Nora! You didn't name your baby yet? Why not? That's the best thing about being a mother!" The brunette was staring at the pretty blonde who was rubbing her temples now, her anger showing on her face now. "Pick out a name right now, or I'll never leave you alone." She crossed her arms across her ridiculously large chest, a very stern look on her face. Her uniform was rather small on her, the owner of this diner did that on purpose more than likely.

"I don't have time to look at names for this child, I can always pick one randomly when it comes. But I have to study for this test now. Now leave me alone, for the last time! You're bugging me and being annoying." Nora was trying her best to keep calm, but hormones were running wild in her body. She blamed the child that was in her for this, she was usually a calm person. She gave the worse glare she could muster at the lady, who finally gave up and walked off.

Nora was finally able to start reading her book again in peace when the words, "Do you even love that child?" floated over to her. Nora shook her head, not even wanting to bother with a stupid question like that. Leaning on her hand, her cheek was being cupped by her palm, she couldn't read anymore. She had a headache from that unwanted moment, so she rubbed the now bruised arm on her left side.

Of course, she loved the child that she was going to give birth to. It was the only thing that she had of Nate at the moment, the only thing with flesh that she could touch. The last that she heard from him, was about a month ago. They were in the middle of training and video chats were strictly forbidden. Closing her eyes and sighing out sadly, she reopened them to see a truck passing by outside the empty diner she was in. Cecilia's Bakery was written in bright blue and red colors all along the side, it gave her an idea. "Cecilia seems like a good name for you since you came out of nowhere.


	2. Silent Scream

**And it's torturing me**

 **But I can't break free**

 **So I cry and cry but just won't get it out**

 **The silent scream**

A small little baby was sitting in the middle of the floor, her hazel eyes were looking all around at everything, curious about every little item that was everywhere. Cecilia was born during october, her birthday was the end of the month. Currently she is now only a year old. She was inside one of those baby pens with a toy or two thrown inside, her little black poof of a hair was messily combed. She wasn't allowed to walk around or play outside of this pen, her mom said she'll make too much noise when she was trying to study. The baby stood up, using the bars as support so she won't fall on her face again, she giggled happily when she saw her mother walk past the pen. Maybe she was going to pick her up again. "M-ma!" she was learning words, not very well since the only time she heard talking was when Nora was on the phone.

Nora, the 20 year old, just stared at the girl who was trying to call her. "No Cecilia. I'm only leaving my bedroom to get some food." She shook her head in unbelief, she thought the child would understand that she was too busy to play with her right now. Young Cecilia fell down to her rear and started to cry, rather loudly at that. Nora groaned in frustration as she went back to in front of the baby jail, her hands on her hips. "Did you fall? Don't cry over something like that!" she was trying to teach her child that falling down should hurt enough for her to cry like that. Cecilia responded by crying even louder, her tears falling down her chubby little face. "What is your problem child?" Nora yelled at the baby, which caused her to flinch and stay quiet, she started to sniffle a bit.

Just as she was about to see her mom walk away from her again, her stomach made a strange feeling. It sounded like a little monster was in her belly, she wanted something to eat. Nora heard that rumbling and sighed softly, "You're hungry... great." She didn't want to deal with it at the moment, she was in her second year of law school, plus a job. So she had no time to study and when she did, she was forced to look after this little one. Grumbling something about being so much trouble for someone so small, she made the bottle and made sure it wasn't too hot or the child would just start crying again.

Nora placed the bottle on the counter, she wanted to make a sandwich before giving her the bottle. It was only fair, in her mind at least. Cecilia was eyeing the blue and white bottle, she knew what was in there, she figured that out after a little while. The child knew it was food, it made her feel better than when her stomach was roaring at her. Finished with her food, Nora grabbed the bottle and dropped it in the pen when she walked by, taking a bite of her ham sandwich.

Cecilia was so happy her mother loved her enough to give her something that made her happy. Crawling over to the food, falling on her face a few times, she managed to get the reward for being a good baby. Using her tiny hands, she picked it up and was sitting down once more, but when she lifted it to her face, she flopped onto her back. Food and a nap, her mommy knew everything! She closed her eyes and started to drink the food that was given to her, falling asleep half way through the bottle in her hands.

A small 4 year old was sitting on the couch with a stuffed animal in her tiny hands, her hazel eyes watching her mother talk on the phone. "Yes! I graduated at the top of my class with a four-year bachelor's degree." Nora noticed that her daughter was watching her with her similar eyes, she turned her back to the toddler and went over to the kitchen. Her conversation over the phone confused Cecilia, but she didn't mind it. Her mother let her out of the baby pen, well, let her out was not how it really happened. Cecilia broke the pen when she couldn't stand it anymore.

"Mamma's... busy..." she mumbled sadly, holding the little lizard to her face. She still didn't talk very much, she had no reason to. She was pretty lonely most of the time but the toy that her mother gave her for her birthday two months ago. She scooted over to the edge of the couch, she wanted to watch the clouds outside from the little apartment building they were in. Landing on her feet, she wobbly walked over to the window that she could barely see out of. Blowing her bangs from her face, she wondered why her mommy had pretty hair while she had messy black hair.

She heard her mom walk back into the room, she was still on the phone. "Nate! Nate! I got into law school!" she was so excited talking to that object, maybe it was important to her mom. She knew she had a father, she didn't know who or what he was, but Nora mentioned it. Once. When she was waiting one day in the doctor's office. Cecilia was hugging to her lizard when she waddled over to Nora, a confused look on her face. "You hungry Cecilia?" She shook her messy head.

Nora shrugged then walked off into the tiny kitchen, looking for something to give the child while she was talking to Nate. "What? You want to talk to her? She might break the phone if I give it to her.." she really didn't want to give up the few minutes she was able to talk to her husband but she couldn't say no to a father wanting to talk to his daughter. "Okay, okay." Placing her hand over the speaker, she took a deep breath and yelled for her daughter. Cecilia jumped a bit, shaking from the sudden loud noise coming from her mom when she was already next to her. Looking down, Nora noticed that her daughter was next to her the whole time. She kneeled down, holding the phone out to her, a worried look in her hazel eyes.

Cecilia has placed the lizard on the floor carefully and took the rather large phone in her hands. Nora went off to get something to eat for the both of them. Cecilia sat down next to her toy, putting the phone to her ear, and mostly her face. "Cecilia, darling?" Cecilia didn't say anything but only gave out a "huh" noise from her little self. "It's your daddy! Hey, there sweetie!" Cecilia was confused, who was this person in this little thing, he sounded so nice! She liked him right away, she giggled happily, a toddler enjoying this moment. "You're so adorable my little angel. Can you tell me who I am?"

Cecilia titled her head in confusion, she wondered who he was but hoped it was her dad. "D. D.. Daddy?" She tried to remember the word she heard before, she hoped she got it right. Hearing the happiness in his voice, it made her even happier than before. "Yes, baby girl! I'm your daddy!" Cecilia squealed in happiness, her mom giving her a glare from the stove. She didn't care, she was talking to her daddy. She kept saying her dad's name, over and over again, daddy. "Oh my sweet little girl, I love you very much. I bet you have mommy's eyes." Cecilia didn't understand what he said but she just giggled some more, she liked talking to him. She heard another guy in the background, she wondered what they were saying. "Cilia, can I talk to mommy? I have to say bye bye now." Cecilia looked a bit sadden at that, she said "Okay daddy... I.. love you?" she tried repeating the phrase he told her. He sounded choked up when he said: "I love up too very much."

Getting up from the floor, she went to her mom and tugged on her dress. Nora looked down and saw her daughter offering the phone to her. Quickly yanking the phone from her little hands, Cecilia went back to grab her toy and to wait for lunch. Going over to the couch again, she tossed her lizard up on it so she can crawl up. She was a bit too short to jump on it with the lizard in her arms.

Trying to comb her messy black hair down into twin braids, the 8 year old Cecilia was watching herself in the mirror. The color of her eyes reminded her so much of her mother, mixtures of brown and blue with a small hint of green, she wondered why she got her eyes. She didn't really like that, she wondered why instead of her kind father's, she ended up getting her mom's. Looking at braids, done messily, she grinned softly. Her baby fat was still lingering her face, but it was slowly going away. Opening the water in the faucet, she pulled her toothbrush from the little white cup in the corner.

She squeezed some toothpaste onto to the brush and started to clean her teeth. She didn't like the minty taste it had but she rather gets it over with and not have a bad breath day at school. Spitting out the white foam, she washed out her mouth and toothbrush. Seeing that she got some foam on her cheek somehow, she cupped her hands under the cold running water and splashed it on her face. After turning off the faucet, she dried her face with her little pink dress that her mom gave her.

Heading into her room, she didn't like this dress, but she didn't really have many clothes to wear. Walking to the rather large bed, she went on all fours to go under the bed. Pulling out a small brown box, Cilia smiled happily, as she ripped it open. Today was her birthday and the last time she spoke to her dad, he told her to open it on her 8th birthday. Which was today. October 31. Halloween. Sticking her hand in the present, she pulled out a small hairpin. It was pretty girly, pink and full of sparkles but she loved it. It had a red heart in the middle of a pink bow. She opened it and tried to clip it to her bangs that were always in her face on the right side for some reason.

Moving the box carefully under the bed, along with the others he sent her on her birthday since she was 5, she headed to the living room. Messing with the dress, she really didn't like it very much, she looked around for her mom. It was 7 in the morning on a Saturday, she shouldn't be at work yet. She did just start at a law firm, though... Walking to the kitchen, she noticed a little sticky note on the white fridge writing for her. Jumping up to grab it from on the freezer section, she started to read it.

"Dear Cecilia.

Your mother has to go into work early today due to my boss giving me a huge case to work on. So I had to leave around 6, I didn't want to wake you up. I didn't have a gift to give you, so I decided to let you sleep in would be your present."

Cecilia stopped reading the note and shook her head in confusion, she woke up at 6:30. It wasn't much of a sleeping in moment. She started to read the note again, her mother's handwriting was very pretty she had to admit.

"I didn't have enough time to cook you lunch for when you woke up, so you have to cook yourself something. There's ham, cheese, and bread for a nice sandwich. Chips are in the cabinet, so get a chair and grab some. We have some Nuka-Cola in the fridge, I know how much children love to drink that. Don't make a more of a mess in the house, it's dirty enough from me frantically searching for my keys that you must have played with. And lost."

Cecilia looked rather offended that her mother would accuse her of losing her keys when she saw her mom putting them in the fridge. She was drinking last night to celebrate her first case won, it was something about a homicide, she didn't know anything else other than that.

"I'll be back later tonight around 9. But I'm not back by 10, I'll be spending the night at work again.

Your mother,

Nora."

Cecilia was tempted to crumble up the paper that held the note that her mother wrote for her but she just placed it down on the table. Touching the little pink bow in her hair, she smiled sadly. She wanted to see her dad in person, but she knew that she had to wait two more years before that. Heading over to the fridge, she saw some bacon and eggs in the fridge, she wasn't supposed to use the stove, but she wanted something warm.

So grabbing the stuff that she needed to make some breakfast for her, she wondered if she could try to make a veggie omelet. She had it once, a bit, that her mom gave her when she couldn't finish what she bought home when working at the diner. She remembered tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms. Her little arms were full of the veggies as she was trying to look around for the cutting board. "There it is!" She went to the cutting board that was located next to the stove, she dumped all the food on the clean wood.

Pulling open the knife drawer, she wondered which knife would be perfect to cut the mushrooms and onions she had picked out. Swallowing softly, she shakily pulled out a rather large knife, it was a bit bigger than her hand. "Okay, okay. I can do this... I hope." She mumbled to herself, trying to give herself some courage, she never used a knife before. She was taller than the cutting board but not tall enough to be able to chop properly.

Not knowing how to use the knife, she was cutting with her fingers sped out over the mushroom. Not paying attention to where her fingers where she nearly chopped the tip off of her digits on her left hand. "Ouch!" she dropped the knife from a reflex, it fell to the floor with a clatter. She put her sore fingers in her mouth, sucking gently. She furrowed her eyebrows, wondering what she did wrong. Her mom did this all the time, did she do something with the knife? Leaning downwards, she grabbed the knife with her other hand. Placing it back on the cutting board, she wondered if it was because her mom was left handed that it worked.

Taking her fingers out of her mouth, she didn't bother drying them as the saliva dripped down her hand. Grasping the handle of the blade, she didn't think it being slippery being anything wrong. So using holding on the mushroom with her right hand, she took a deep breath and started to cut it. Her left hand slipped and the point of the blade nearly pierced her palm. "Jeeze! I almost got hurt again... But it worked at least." she smiled at her progress so far. Next was a tomato, she tried to get it to cut but the blade didn't want to cut through the red shiny skin. "I should hold it!" she thought to herself, not seeing anything wrong with it.

Grabbing the tomato and holding it in her palm, she gently pricked the skin of the tomato. The juices ran down the red side, dripping onto her hand. She figured that's how it was supposed to go, she started to poke at it a bit, the juices kept running down her hand. Putting it back on the cutting board, she put the knife back next to the messily chopped and poked food. Turning on the fire to the stove, she waited a few seconds before dropping the veggies into the pan. Not sure how long to keep it cooking in there before adding eggs, she counted 2 minutes. Breaking the eggs inside, she didn't see a rather large chunk of shell drop in the food she was making.

Using a fork from the drawer, she started to move around the food, trying her best to get the eggs and whole tomato from the bottom of the pan. It wasn't working very well. Around 10 minutes later, she turned off the fire and looked at the strange meal she made. It was nothing that looked like what she had before, it looked more like dirt. Using the fork, she grabbed a small piece and blew on it. Taking the bite, she spat it out almost as soon as it hit her tongue, not only that it burned, it tasted horrible. Dropping the fork into the pan, she stuck out her tongue in disgust. "Nasty..." she whined softly, going back to the fridge to look for a juice box. She'll clean this up after she's done with her juice... Although she doesn't have to clean it up till tomorrow night, her mom was sure to stay at work , her mom was sure to stay at work tonight.


	3. I'm Already There

**But when he heard the sound**

 **Of the kids laughing in the background**

 **He had to wipe away a tear from his eye**

 **A little voice came on the phone**

 **Said "Daddy when you coming home"**

 **He said the first thing that came to his mind**

Soft breathing can be heard in the slightly ajar bedroom as a 10 year old Cecilia slept peacefully, her dreams keeping her company tonight. Clutched tightly to her chest, was the small toy that her mom got her when she was just a toddler, a little green lizard. She didn't know why but that small little toy was her only way to sleep in the empty apartment that she was usually in nowadays. Moving around in her sleep, her left hand twitched slightly, her face still peaceful.

The front door was opened softly, a soft murmur was heard in the living room as footsteps began to go around the room. "Damn it..." The person who turned out to be male grumbled as he bumped into a coffee table, knocking over a vase that was in the middle. Before he had a chance to catch the glass, it shattered on the floor, waking up Cecilia with a sudden start. "Shit!" The unknown male cursed beneath his breath, but loud enough for him to be heard from her room.

Cecilia clutched the lizard to her chest, her little heart pounding in her chest as she sat up in bed. She closed her eyes and breathed out softly as she scooted from the middle of the bed to the edge. Taking off her covers, she placed one foot on the hardwood floors of her bedroom, her lizard still in her arm. Nibbling on her bottom lip to keep it from quivering, she placed her other foot on the floor and got up, slowly tip-toeing over to the door to try to peek through the small crack. She almost let out a small whimper when a sudden light blinded her eye, she took a step back and started to rub it furiously.

Finally getting the small dots from her sight, she peeked through the crack once more, she didn't get to see the guy very well. She saw black hair in what looked like army people would have, shaved but still, have hair. Narrowing her eyes in hope to see further, which didn't work very well, she tried to see what kind of clothing he was wearing. She just saw a black short sleeved shirt, he wasn't wearing a jacket so she could tell. The rest of his outfit was covered by the light gray couch that was in the middle of the room. Kneeling down, she placed her lizard in her mouth, holding it by its neck using her teeth.

Slowly opening the white door to her room with her head, she tried her best to do it quietly as possible. She didn't want to spook the guy, if that happened, he might try to shoot her if he was a robber. 10 years isn't a good age to kick the bucket, she knew that much. Crawling quietly to the living room, she hid behind the couch just as the unknown person walked over to the kitchen to only open the fridge. She wondered if he was just looking for something to eat, maybe he was homeless and needed someplace to sleep? No! Her mother would kill her if she let a strange person in the house, she didn't like people in the house other than them two. Three including her lizard toy.

Crawling quickly to the farthest side of the couch, she hides right there, dropping her lizard down. "Lizzy. Check him out!" she whispered low enough to her little toy, propping him up on the arm of the gray little furniture. She waited for him to say something, he wasn't saying anything. "Lizzy! Information is needed now!" She whispered to him again, still, nothing coming from the little lizard. Taking a deep breath and exhaling softly, she went on her knees and peeked from over the arm of the couch just in time for the guy to see her. "Abort mission, I repeat, abort mission, Lizzy!" She shouted from her spot next to the couch, she went into a little ball, waiting for the guy to start shooting.

"Cilia?" The guy didn't start shooting but instead called her name, he sounded familiar to her. She heard footsteps, large footsteps go into the living room but then back up some. "Cecilia? You still there?" He sounded a bit worried, confused, and almost sad at her reaction to him seeing her. She uncovered her head from her little ball shape she was in, she peeked over the couch once more. "Hey there kid- no, no don't hide... again..." He tried to talk to her but she just hid again, this wasn't going anywhere like this. Rubbing the back of his tan neck, he wondered just how he was going to talk to her.

He then noticed the little lizard that was sitting on the arm, he got an idea. Clearing his throat to speak to it, he placed a hand on his hip and his other arm just hanging lazily. "Lizzy, was it?" He would try to get her to show herself using the little green lizard that was there 'guarding' her. Cecilia blinked a few times before she realized that the man was talking to her, no, to Lizzy. Not showing her face, but only her little hands, she grabbed the toy and looked for his head. Nodding it, she wondered if he saw that. "Well, my name is Nate. And I was wondering if I could talk to the little one you're protecting." She shook his whole body violently, showing extreme dislike with that idea. "No? Really? Ah man... I don't know what to do know if you won't let me..." Nate, if that's his real name, sounded very sad that Lizzy didn't agree to that idea.

"Will you not let me talk to her at all?" He waited for Lizzy's response, again it denied his request to talk to the little one controlling it. "Even if I say I'm her dad?" He raised an eyebrow, waiting for the reaction to his question, a few seconds pass by, half a minute, a minute. "L-Lizzy?" He wondered if he did something wrong until her little hands disappeared and she stood up from behind the arm, she was sniffing softly. Her black hair was a mess from barely waking up. She was holding her arm, she had a foot stepped back in case he tried to do anything. But it was clear that she was crying a bit, her eyes were red and the tears were still on her cheeks.

"Don't get scared sweetheart... It's really me." Nate smiled softly, taking a step forward, his arms outstretched to her and he went down on one knee. "Come to d-daddy." His voice cracked a bit, he was close to crying when he thought that Cecilia was about to run away from him. She looked at him, wiping the tears that were starting to fall again, she suddenly ran over to him, jumping into his chest. He almost lost his balance, he didn't think she'd jump into his chest like that. "Cecilia?" He said her name softly, petting her messy black hair that was so much like his own.

"Daddy... Daddy... Daddy..." She kept saying his name, she didn't want this to be another dream again. Every time she said his name, he'd vanish from her arms and she would be alone in the darkness. Cecilia's soft crying turned into bawling as she realized that this was real, that her dad was finally home. "Daddy!" She called his name once more, wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders, tears and snot getting on his, now dirty, black shirt.

Nate hugged her close to his chest, happy that he's finally able to hold his daughter in his arms. He kissed the top of her head, holding back the tears that want to fall down. "I'm here sweetheart... I'm home." He thought he heard her talking but that was just her sniffing in his shirt, he carefully sat down so he wouldn't tip over. He rested his head on her own head, her hair getting in his face but he didn't mind it. He then heard her ask him something, "Are you leaving again?" He was right, she did say something earlier, but he lifted his head and shoot it gently. "No Cecilia. I'm staying here. With you and your mom." He knew where she was, he made sure to stop by the law firm before coming home, he wanted to see her real quick.

He then started to pet her head again, trying to calm her down again. When she finally stopped sniffed, he noticed that she had fallen asleep in his arms. Sighing happily, he gently picked her up and got up from the floor, holding her close to his chest as he took her to her room. He figured that was her room, the door was opened, and the sign "Cecilia's Room" gave him a clue. Going to her bed, he leaned forward, gently placing her on the bed, to only see her small hands clutching his shirt as if he'd leave again. Somehow taking off his shirt, he lifted her arm up and let her hold the shirt, he had a tank top underneath.

Heading out of the room, he closed the door and whispered, "I here, baby girl." As he was about to completely close the door, he heard her say, "I.. love... you... Daddy..." She said that in her sleep, it made his heart clench and a few tears fell down his face. "I love you too Cecilia."


	4. Story Of My Life

**Written in these walls are the stories that I can't explain**

 **I leave my heart open but it stays right here empty for days**

Laying in bed, Cecilia was staring up at the ceiling with her hands behind her head. She had her legs propped up on her bed, one crossed over the other. She was just listening to music with her headphones when she saw her door open. Pulling down the headphones, she sat up on her bed, a curious look on her face. She was a bit shocked when her mother popped her head from behind the door. "Everything's okay?" The 13 year old wasn't used to her mother looking for her, let along going into her room to see if she was in there.

Nora shook her head, "Of course Cecilia. Your father and I are going to the doctors, I ordered a pizza for you. We're eating out after. See you later." Cecilia didn't say anything but waved her okay at her mother, they had an understanding. She doesn't have to talk too much to her daughter as long as Cecilia stays quiet and behaves. Cecilia doesn't really have much of anything to do in such a small apartment anyways. When Nora closed the door, she placed her headphones on the bed and quietly got off of her bed and went to the door. Pressing her ear to the door, she tried her best to hear the conversation.

"Nora, are you sure you want to do this? Last time... You were so against the idea." Nate was sitting on the couch, a magazine was in his hands: Hot Rodder. He looked up from the magazine, a raised eyebrow on his face. He wasn't sure what Nora was up to, he had an idea but he wasn't really trying to figure out his wife at the moment.

"I know I was against the idea of taking a fertility shot but I'm not getting pregnant." She sighed softly, placing her left hand on her hip, she was still plenty young. But 32 is a strange age to have another child. She was standing on the other side of the couch, watching Nate read. She noticed that Nate wasn't really paying much attention to what Nora was saying, she rolled her eyes and walked over to her husband. Snatching the magazine, she moved his arms and sat on his lap, a whimper on her lips. "We've been trying for a year, and still nothing! I don't want to be too old before having a child... Before we get another child Nate." She quickly corrected herself, knowing full well that Nate was too busy in his magazine to notice her mistake.

Nate smiled softly and wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in for a kiss. Nora was laughing a bit, placing her hands over his mouth."Alright, alright fine. We can ask the doctor if the shot is still one of the options we have. And if everything goes according to plan, we should have another baby in the oven in two months. Just in time for your birthday!" He grinned softly as Nora ran her fingers through his short hair, trying to fix the bed head on her husband's head. He was only a year older than her but he wanted to give her everything she wanted, she was the world to him.

"And when we find out that I'm pregnant, we're getting that house in Sanctuary, right? With the white picket fence?" Nora sounded almost like she was begging her husband to buy the house, she even gave him a pout face. "It has three bedrooms and comes with a huge backyard. We can even go to the lake during the summer time! Just like we just to when we were younger..." She purred softly, placing a slim finger on his chest, a grin on her face.

Cecilia backed away from the door, a strange feeling in her chest, she didn't know what it was. She stumbled back to her bed, her music still blaring from the headphones as she picked it up. She knew that they had every right to want to have another kid, but shouldn't they at least ask her first? See what she thought about the whole idea of having a kid brother, or sister. She fell backward onto the comforter, wondering if they were going to treat the child the same way she is treated. It's only fair to treat the children the same, right?

Her mind was going in circles, a feeling of... abandonment from her parents, of course, she was used to that from her mother. But from her dad? The person who stopped what he was doing, some work for the military, to go check up on her while she was doing her own work. School work, but still, that little gesture meant the world to the little girl. Closing her eyes, Cecilia started to wonder how life would be after her mother gets pregnant again? Would they still live in this small apartment, would she have to take care of her younger brother or sister while she is working? But if that was the case, she'll try her best to feel the child feel welcomed, despite herself not even wanting else to share her dad with.

And so, after hearing the news, the buttons of life seemed to have been stuck on fast forward for the young girl. She saw the small apartment grow into a huge house, the city that they lived in before changed to the Sanctuary place they were talking about. She had a much bigger room than before but it was in the back of the house, the baby's room is closest to the front of the house with their parents' room right next door to it. She saw her mother's stomach grow bigger till it looked like she was about to pop, she was ready to give birth to a baby brother, his name was Shaun. Her dad finished his military contract and was now a civilian, her mother took time off from being a lawyer. They even bought a mister handy to help out with the baby, the baby that was already taking over her dad's every waking moment...

After her brother was born, both of her parents were on maternity leave, they were spending as much time as possible with the child. They didn't want Shaun to feel sad or left alone, they wanted him to feel happy, feel all the love in the world that parents can show to a child. As this was going on, they started to neglect their oldest, child. Their unwanted child. When she had homework that is required by a parent to look over, she forges one of their signatures. After all, they wouldn't bother with seeing if she was failing or passing her classes, but of course, she was passing. She had no problem keeping up with school, if she was busy, she wouldn't have time to think about her parents neglecting her for her younger brother...

It was a month or so before Shaun's first birthday, Cecilia was combing her hair into a ponytail on the back of her head when Codsworth came into her room. "Miss Cecilia, are you going somewhere?" The young teenager didn't say anything to the , she didn't want him to worry. It was programmed to care about the family but it bothered her that a robot was trying to make her feel happier than her own parents. "If you are leaving, at least let me do your hair. I know how you like my braids." Codsworth exclaimed with a robotic laugh before floating behind the girl, taking the brush gently from her hands. "How do you want your hair today? A braid from the nape of your neck or starting from the top?" Cecilia couldn't help but sigh at the stubbornness of the robot that was trying to act like a mother to her. "Cecilia, I won't say anything to your parents if they don't ask. But at least let me do your hair."

"From the top then Codsworth... And use the red ribbon I got last week.." Codsworth happily agreed to use the ribbon that was laying on the top of her cabinet, which was to the left of them. Cecilia watched herself in the mirror and started to closed her eyes, that color bothered her. It reminded her too much of her mother, and her brother that was still sleeping in the room near the front of the house. "Thanks, Codsworth..." The teenager mumbled to the robot when he finished with her hair, giving her a pat on her head.

"Oh, and I washed the toy that your mother told me to throw out last week." Cecilia was about to grab her jacket when she stopped and turned around, a confused but scared look in her eyes. "Yes, your Lizzy. She told me you don't need it anymore. However, your father told me to look after you. And if you require this toy to be happy, then I'll disobey the madam for the young master. Here ya go!" Codsworth tossed the green lizard over to Cecilia who caught it mid-air as the robot was heading over to the kitchen to start cooking.

She was about to toss the stuffed animal on the bed when she got a strange feeling and she suddenly gripped it close to her chest. She didn't want to leave it alone, so grabbing her backpack, she shoved it, nicely, into the bag before opening the window to her room. She didn't want to go out the front door, they might stop her. She knew that was a lie, they wouldn't care if she left, they were too busy with her younger brother to even bother with her anymore. She hated that. It could be the end of the world and they would still be too worried about Shaun more than they would about her. Speaking of the end of the world, a vault was being built up the hill and curiosity was getting the best of her. A curiosity that might just save her life...

After Cila managed to jump out the window without making too much noise, she just casually walked over to the sidewalk with her bag on one shoulder. Pushing open the white picket fence gate, she took a deep breath of the fresh air with the scent of fall heavily in the air. The sounds of life were all around her. Flowing water from the lake on the other side of the town, with a small creek behind her and neighbors chattering on the other side of the hedge that surrounded the back of the town, strangely enough. While she was heading over to the top of the hill, a strange looking guy with yellow clothes smiled at her. She didn't trust him. Stopping after he passed her, she just watched him walk over to the front of a house to ring the doorbell. Was he going in order? That was a bit weird.

Just as she thought that, a vertibird passed overhead towards the vault on the hill. She that wasn't normal out in the sticks like this, maybe for Concord it's okay. But over here? Were they looking for her dad? That thought caused a shiver to run down her spine, they were going to take away her dad again. She couldn't let that happen, she didn't want that to happen. So, putting on the other strap to her backpack, she started to run towards the vertibird, that was currently on top of the hill. She was too busy to pay any attention to anything else, so when she turned the corner so ran face first into someone from the army.

Before she had a chance to fall down on her rear, the army man grabbed her elbow with a reaction time that would put a cat to shame. "Woah there, little one. Why the rush?" The army man laughed softly, letting the girl go with his hands up in surrender when she was looking pissed off. "Sorry, just helping out sweetie. I didn't want a kid falling down and getting hurt around me."

Little one? Kid? She was 15 years old for french toast's sake! "Stop calling me little and kid! I'm in high school, for your information!" She crossed her arms over her chest to show that she was mad, she wasn't used to talking to people, but she'll try her best right there. She watched the army man's ocean blue eyes turn a light blue for a moment, a look of surprise on his face before he started to laugh quite loudly at her annoyance. "What? Stop laughing!"

"I'm sorry, li- miss. I just didn't think you'd get so upset over someone calling you a kid. Anyways, just be careful next time you're running. Most soldiers would just let you fall down and get hurt." The man just smiled at the young teenager who just carefully walked around him by scooting sideways till she finally got around him. Waving goodbye at her, the man just shook his head before heading town the street that she came down.

She blinked in confusion on what she was running about before when she remembered that the army was here. She was to start running again when she started to hear panicked screams and sirens going off. What was going on? She didn't think much of it, maybe the vault was was broken or something. She was about to start running up the hill once she passed the bridge but she noticed that other people had the same idea, apparently. What was going on? She was about to turn back home when someone grabbed her shoulder and pulled her around. Being forced to turn around, she realized that the man was actually a boy since she actually looked at him this time. A boy who was no older than 20. "Find your parents." Before she had a chance to ask him anything, he ran towards the others, who were in Power Armour. She's never seen one so close before.

Wait, did he say find her parents? Why? She was about to run over to the person when her dad came running over. "Cecilia! I finally found you, we need to go, sweetie." Nate was trying his best to keep calm so his daughter wouldn't get scared. Nora was still getting Shaun from the house, he left earlier to find his oldest child.

"Dad? Dad! What's wrong?!" She didn't understand why Nate was pushing her towards the top of the hill, towards the vault. "Don't go up there, the army is here!" She was starting to fight him when she noticed the look on his face. He was scared. She'd never seen him scared before, she was starting to get worried. "D-dad, what's happening?" She didn't understand why he was so scared until she realized something terrifying... They were building a vault because of Nuke threats. She was getting scared now, she didn't want to blow up, she didn't want to die.

"Cecilia, come on sweetie!" She couldn't believe it, the world could be ending and her mother FINALLY says something nice to her. Guess the world really is going to blow up... She was looking all around her, everything seemed to have slowed down, she was seeing people run towards the top of the hill, people falling down, children crying as they try to reach for the toy that they dropped during the rush. She closed her eyes.

Opening her eyes, she was scared. She didn't want to go inside, something about that place scared the living crap out of her. She'll curse now, she'll fucking curse now. "No, I don't want to go in there! I don't fucking like it!" She yelled at her father who was consoling baby Shaun who was whining softly. Her mother looked understanding at her daughter's outburst, she was wearing the god awful blue vault suit. Same as her father. Same as herself. The doctor next to her, looked worried as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "I... I don't want to be in some container... Please..."

"It's going to be okay Cil. I promise I will get out the same time as you will. It'll only be a few seconds." Cecilia looked at her father then at the tube, then back at her father. "I promise. You'll only be stuck in there less than 30 seconds." The young girl lifted up her finger and held out her pinky. A pinky promise. They haven't done this since she was a young child. Her father just smiled and gave her his large pinky. "I pinky promise my little girl."

"Remember, you promised you'll be getting out the same time as me, daddy..." The last thing that she saw was her father smiling at, not at her, but her mom and Shaun. She took a deep breath as she stepped into the tube-like thing the same time as her parents. She was watching her father who was in front of her, her mother in the tube next to her. When the hatch closed down on them, her feet started to feel cold. She didn't know what was happening but she was feeling strange.

Coming back awake, the young girl was looking all around her, she was still in the tube next to her mom. She was breathing heavily, the air in the tube was freezing cold but maybe that was part of the thing. Little by little, she was able to start seeing again. She then noticed that the window was iced over. Was that normal? She was in the middle of figuring it out when she heard a voice, "This is the one", and another one following right after, "Open it." He sounded gruff.. Scary almost. Next to her, she heard the sounds of a hatch opening. Where they finally going to let them out of there?

She couldn't hear what they were saying but hearing bits and pieces of it, "It's going to be alright now.", "Give us the child." Were they going to take Shaun away from her mother? She isn't going to let that happen, if was her, she'd happily let them take Cecilia away... Her mother kept on saying no, the gruff voice was telling her mother to let Shaun go. "I'll only tell you once." Her mother was still struggling with keeping Shaun. A loud bang was heard, and her mother was saying anything anymore. "Come on, let's get out of here." Shaun was crying very loudly now as she saw a person in a white suit carry him off. A muffled voice, the same gruff voice as before.

She saw the man again, a little bit more clearly now but everything was starting to turn cold once more. She didn't want to black out again, she wanted to get out. She took a deep breath and exhaled, her body starting to turn heavy as it did last time. "I... I.. I want to... get out..." Her eyes closed once more. When this young girl would open her eyes the next time, her world will be forever changed.


	5. Frag Out

Jumping over a huge pile of trash, a girl with black hair was playing around in the alleyways leading up to Goodneighbor. With every jump that she did, the leather armor she was wearing shifted on her body, causing her to stop and fix it back into place. She wasn't used to something like this, even after 5 months of traveling around in this getup, leather was the only thing she'd happily wear. Just as she was about to jump over a rather large puddle of questionable, black water, a man with dark brown hair was huffing as he leaned against a wall, a black hat in his hands. "Cilia!" yelled the man as he tried his best to catch his breath, the young girl, apparently named Cilia turned around and waved at him, a goofy grin on her face. "What did i say about running head first into a battle?!" he walked over to her, a stern but concerned look on his face aimed at the young Cila. He was now in front of her, tapping his foot with his hands on his waist.

Sighing softy, Cila messed around with the pip boy on her wrist as she tried to fix her sleeve that was starting to ride up her arm. "'Don't run head first into a battle. Analyze and.. No! Don't try and stab the super mutant! Cecilia! God damn it!" she repeated the phrase that her companion always told her before a battle, although it changed from super mutants to a feral ghoul. The time before this, it just happened to be a deathclaw and a 10 mm pistol, she thought it'll be fun to blow off it's head with one. Only need to say, she has a new deathclaw hand in her backpack, along with an awesome gun that blows things up. Closing her eyes, she remembered the day she got that gun.

 _Walking through the dead grass, Cecilia was messing around with her handgun that she kept in a holster wrapped around her left thigh. She wasn't really watching where she was going, and was about to fall down the side of a hill, when her father pulled her back. "Cecilia! Don't play with your gun, watch where you're going!" Her companion, Nate, was always looking after her, if he didn't she'd fall into a lake or fall off a cliff if he wasn't careful. Rolling her eyes, she was about to put her gun back when she heard the familiar pounding of heavy feet beneath them. Their reactions were a bit different... Nate crouched instinctively, to avoid detection of the deadly lizard, while Cecilia quickly reloaded her gun and peered over the rather large rock._

 _Grinning like a little kid, the black haired girl pulled out a Frag from her backpack, she always has one on her in case of times like this. Pulling the pin out before Nate even has a chance to say otherwise, she tossed it over the rock. Putting the pin in her mouth, she jumped on to the rock with ease, placing a foot forward, Nate knew what was about to happen, she was going to jump. "No!" he yelled, lunging to grab at her, but it was too late. She jumped from the rock,and just as the lizard noticed her, the grenade went off, her little modified gun going off. Smoke and dust filled the little cave where the deathclaw was at, the dust engulfing the young girl as she fell feet first into the aftermath._

 _Roaring and gunshots could only be heard, he can't see anything other than that brown dust that was till covering the air around the two down there. Shit shit shit, that was the only thing going through his mind as he ran down the hill to get where the girl jumped in. Suddenly, it all became quiet, and a feeling of dread filled his chest. "Cecilia!" he cried out in nervousness and unease as he pulled out his Hunting Rifle. Running into the little cave, the smoke finally cleared out, he was ready to put a load of lead into a deathclaw when he saw Cecilia sitting on the corpse of a very dead deathclaw, messing around with the severed head._

 _"What do you think? Roar! I'ma eat you Dad!" she crackled up happily, the head in front of her own. Holding it out in front of her, she tried opening it's mouth to see how many teeth they have. Her dad, Nate, fell to his rear, his heart pounding in his chest. This wasn't the only time she did something reckless and stupid, he's only been awake for 5 months, and in the five months he's been out of cryo, over 20 times she'd done something like this. "Oh, for some weird reason, this deathclaw had a gun on him! And no, i'm keeping it!" she smiled happily, a brand new combat rifle sitting across her lap._

"And i'll keep saying it Cecilia, don't go running into battle. That's supposed to be my job." he said softly, running his calloused left hand through his messy hair, trying to get it under control to put the hat back on his head. Closing his eyes, he grabbed Cecilia's collar of her dirty army fatigues right before she slipped into the water. "Don't do that, I rather not face Piper's wrath..." he said with a shiver of fright, but with a slight smile on his face.

Squirming out of his grasp, she managed to get out of arms reach of the brown haired male, jokingly gagging as she stuck her finger in her mouth. "Gross dad! I do NOT want to know about your sex life with Piper!" she was starting to laugh at her dad's expression. It was a mixture of horror, embarrassment, and surprise. "Don't give me that look, EVERYONE could hear you. Hell, even poor Dogmeat has to cover his ears!" she shook her head and screamed in fit of laughter as her father lunged towards her, trying to grab her.

"Come here you little sneak thief!" he laughed as he was chasing her around the large pile of junk that they were running around. Cila got the bright idea of taking of a stealth boy and wiggle her eyebrows at her dad. "No, don't you dare. Cecelia." he told her with a stern tone in his voice, trying his best not to laugh, but he failed horribly when she turned it on and she vanished from his sight. "Oh, you want to play that game? Fine." he took a step back and watched his surroundings carefully, lifting one hand out and clenched his fist quickly.

"Dad! Lemme go!" screamed the empty air in front of him, a fit of giggles was filling around him until the stealth boy ran out of steam, leaving a very red faced girl in his grips. "Okay, okay. You win. Can we go to Goodneighbor now? Hancock is waiting for you, Silver Shroud." she joked around a bit, snickering at the outfit her dad was wearing to make that old time ghoul happy. Snatching the hat that was on his head, she placed it on her own. "I think I'll keep this, after all. I look a lot better in it than you." she stuck her tongue out at him, heading towards Goodneighbor, her father groaning in annoyance.

"Don't touch anything, don't look at anyone and if you're offered drugs what do you say?" he was trying to get her to pay attention before she got to the door underneath the huge neon lights. "Cecilia!" he yelled at her just as she touched the doorknob. Turning around on her heel, she looked at him, confusion in her eyes. "What do you say when someone offer you drugs?"

"Oh! Oh! Oh! I know that one! You say thank you because drugs are expensive!" she snickered softly before slipping through the doorway, just as the door closed she flinched at the sound of her dad yelling her name behind the door to Goodneighbor. "Ignore that, it's the call of a very mad father." she laughed happily as she ran passed the stone walls that were covering, stopping to see the neighborhood watch looking completely confused at the commotion in the front of the gates. "Just a normal day for father and daughter. Oh shit!" she started to run once more, passed K.L.E.O's shop just as her dad opened the door, only to see her turn the corner.

"Cecelia..." he grumbled under his breath as he shook his head, heading to the old statehouse to talk to the mayor. He just finished the last quest he was sent on for the ghoul. Opening the door, he was wondering if there was anyone he could convince to stay with his daughter while he's out looking the supplies to get into the Glowing Sea. Piper was a no go, she has a better time telling a pissed off deathclaw what to do. Dogmeat works perfectly since she loves being around him but when a raider kicks him... It's bloodbath, she kills EVERYTHING in sight that dared to hurt her little puppy. Maybe he can pay someone off?


	6. Partners In Crime

**The skies are black with lead-filled rain,**

 **A morbid painting on display,**

 **This is the night the young love died,**

 **Buried at each other's side,**

 **You never took us alive**

 **We swore that death would do us part**

Wandering through the piss soaked smell of the streets, Cecilia coughed softly trying to clear her throat of the dust. Brushing the bangs from out of her right eye, she was blinded for a moment by the neon lights above the Memory Den. She passed a drifter who laughed softly and told her, "Smell that sister? That's the smell of freedom!" they then took the deepest breath possible, at least for a jet user. Freedom smells like piss and drugs, wonderful she thought sarcastically. Sighing softly, she pulled out her 10 mm and posted herself to the wall of the Memory Den, the first place her dad will look for her.

Messing around with the mechanics of the gun she had in her hands, she was wondering just how in hell the bullets that were shot out of this thing blew up on contact. She has a knack for finding weird but pretty awesome guns like. Sticking her finger down the barrel of the gun, she was feeling around, trying to see if there was some kind of sparking mechanism in the barrel itself. Taking her digit out of the barrel, she pointed it at the ground, a soft smile on her face as she was waving at her dad. "Dad!"

Running over to his daughter, Nate's first reaction was to squeeze her face between his hands as he checked her for any kind of new things. Mostly like drugs sticking out of her pockets or some random new gun. Rolling her eyes, she let her dad do as he pleased, she wasn't in the mood for complaining, the stench of piss was getting to her. Quickly glancing at him, she noticed that he was wearing the road leathers again, shit. She thought she threw that away. Leather does not look good on anyone past 30. Seeing the glint of black leather, she saw the shadow leather armor she placed in his backpack instead of the heavy metal armor he loved. She smiled happily, he listened to her, at least in that armor sense, now to get rid of the leather... "Good, nothing new on you."

Smacking his hands from her face, she rolled her eyes and shook her head, placing her hands on her hips. "Who do you think I am? Some petty thief that steals Jet from random drifters?" She scoffed softly, looking away from her father who just looked annoyed at her reaction. "What?" she was a bit confused on why he was tapping his foot, he only did that when he found something on her, that wasn't there before.

"Cecilia, did you steal something that isn't drugs from a drifter?" he had a stern tone in his voice, his hand outstretched to get the item that she took from a random drifter. "I know you took something, I saw your inventory on your pip-boy. You hate pipe pistols, and you only have them on you when you find them or steal them. Now give it up before I have to pin you down and take it from you." Groaning out her frustrations, she clicked on the item on her pip-boy and out of the little wrist watch, a weapon materializes by scanning the space in Nate's hands and plopping out a very rusty pipe pistol. "There, I'm going to hold onto this until we get home."

"But first! Let's go see Whitechapel Charlie, I heard he has a mission for someone who buys a drink from him!" Pushing herself from the wall, she was about to pass her father when he grabbed her collar and kept her from moving farther from him. "What? Oh, right. Under aged right? Don't worry! You can keep the beer, I'll profit on the mission." She grinned happily, knowing her father can't deny that logic, Charlie doesn't give out missions that leave Goodneighbor and if it seems dangerous, he'll do it himself.

Heading into The Third Rail, Ham nodded to the two entering the establishment. Cecilia sighed softly, the place smelt like bad beer and sweat, almost like a drunken sex night. At least, that's what piper said once before. Heading down the stairs, she was about to head over to Charlie when a random drifter, with an annoyed tone, grumbled, "What? Another one of you mercs looking for Mccready? He's in the backroom." Nate wondered if that's what he was looking for, so snatching Cecilia before she went and somehow bought a bottle of beer, he dragged her over to the backroom. The door was closed and before he was about to open, Cecilia stopped him from opening it. "Hush," she whispered softly to her father, she heard talking, but she couldn't hear it clearly.

Her father rolled his light blue eyes before opening the door that opened silently, the voices becoming clearly in their ears. "Can't say I'm surprised to see you in a dump like this, Mccready." a deep and coarse voice spoke to this Mccready, Cecilia already has her 10 mm out, in case something decides to go down. Going inside the room, the father and daughter pair sat down in the corner of the room, he was pretending to read a book. Cecilia, on the other hand, was watching the three males carefully.

The one with the green hat spoke, that must be Mccready, "I was wondering how long it would take your bloodhounds to track me down, Winlock." Mccready seemed rather, annoyed, with this whole situation that he was in. Narrowing her eyes, she was wondering who the hell these people were. The had the look of Gunners, a nasty merc group, she met them a few times before. Well, she shot them a few times before, they did have some pretty great gear on them, so that was a plus. "It's been almost three months... Don't tell me you're getting rusty." He seemed to be almost teasing him now, that wasn't going to end very well... "Should we take this outside?" he asked them, almost like he was trying to tempt them into a firefight.

The man who Cecilia assumed was Winlock, what a strange name, finally spoke to Mccready. His deep voice causing Cecilia to feel annoyed, it was just too damn deep and scratchy, almost like an itch under your skin. "It ain't like that. I'm just here to deliver a message." She shuddered visibly at the grammar he was spewing everywhere.

As he was getting up from his chair, Mccready told them, "In case you forgot, I left the Gunners for good." When he stood up completely, he didn't seem much taller than Cecilia, or the two guys in front of him.

"Yeah, I heard." Mccready took a step towards them, "But you're still taking jobs in the Commonwealth. That isn't going to work for us." he told the ex-gunner, almost growling his words.

Mccready glared at Winlock, it seemed he finally had enough of the two guys pestering him. "I don't take orders from you." he took a second of a breath, "not anymore. So, why don't you take your girlfriend and walk out of here while you still can." Cecilia grinned softly, that was a threat, and she loved making threats promises. She was about to get up and intervene when the man with the horrible hairdo, and clothing that matches her own, finally spoke.

"What?! Winlock, tell me we don't have to listen to this shit." He looked like he was about to grab his gun, Cecilia couldn't tell what it was, but knowing their types, had to be some kind of combat rifle.

Winlock stopped the other guy, spitting out his next words to Mccready, "Listen up, Mccready. The only reason we haven't filled your body full of bullets is that we don't want a war with Goodneighbor. See, we respect other people's boundaries... We know how to play the game. It's something you never learned." Mccready grinned softly at their words responding with, "Glad to have disappointed you." All Winlock did was chuckle at his remark, adding some comments of his own. "You can play the tough guy all you want. But if we hear that you're still operating inside Gunner territory, all bets are off. You got that?" Mccready shook his head and sighed heavily, "You finished?" Winlock nodded, "Yeah... we're finished. Come on, Barnes." that's his name! Ugly do sounds better for him, though... The two men walked out of the room as Mccready sat back down in his chair, Nate was waiting till the other two were long gone before getting up.

"Cecilia, come with me," Nate told his daughter before getting up and heading over to Mccready, who looked up at him from his chair. "Look, man. If you're preaching about the Atom," Cecilia knew about that ground of people, ugly things they were, "Or looking for a friend, you've got the wrong guy." He breathed in some air before continuing, "If you need a hired gun... Then maybe we can talk."

Getting curious those two guys, Nate wasn't just going to let some guy with bad people hanging around him get near his daughter. "Maybe." he looked at his daughter before continuing what he was saying, "Why don't you tell me who those two guys were first." Cecilia seemed very uninterested with this whole conversation, so she just walked away and zoned out, and thought about finding another Deathclaw to play with again. She zoned back in when she heard Mccready asking her father a question.

"Now, what about you? How do I know I won't end up with a bullet in my back?" Cecilia grinned softly and appeared back next to her dad. She added her own comment in before her dad had a chance to speak to him, "You don't. That's part of the risk, right?" Nate cupped his large hands over his daughter's mouth, hoping she didn't ruin this chance for him. "Can't argue with that." He agreed with Cecilia's comment, Nate was rather surprised at that. "I'll tell you what. Price is 250 caps... Up front. No room for bargaining. What do you say?"

Cecilia was a bit shocked at that price, she could enough bullets to fill up a Radscorpion, and then some with that amount. Well, she wasn't strapped for cash, she had... plenty from doing jobs, and getting more caps for them. Licking her father's hand, he let go of her mouth, wiping his hand on his clothes, saying something that that was extremely nasty to do. Cecilia had this HUGE smile on her face, as she was looking at Mccready, "Everything's negotiable. Would you take 200?"

Mccready raised an eyebrow but just said, "You drive a hard bargain, but you just bought yourself an extra gun." he said rather proudly, almost like he was worth the caps that her father was going to be paying. She wanted to help sweeten the deal for him, is all. He should keep him busy enough to let her do her own thing. "Alright, boss... Let's get out of here." He was getting his gun that he kept to the side of his chair when Nate stopped him, the caps in his hands. "What?"

"Not for me, Mccready. For her." he pushed Cecilia out in front of him, an equally confused look on the both of their faces. "What, Cila? Thought I needed someone else with me? I have Piper." he grinned happily at the thought of going with his girlfriend and traveling the Commonwealth, and getting trapped indoors during a radiation storm for a few days. Leaving nothing but their clothes on the floor and their mo-

"DAD! Gross, no sex daydreams around me, please. Ugh." she shuddered in disgust at her dad's thoughts about her best friend. She looked at Mccready who seemed okay with the whole thing, while she was looking him over, her dad slipped away. Turning back to her dad, he was missing. "Oh, okay. Leave me here with him... Good parenting." Shaking her head a bit before sighing underneath her breath to see her new "friend" looking at her. "What? Got a problem?" she had her pistol in her hand causally, not thinking much of it since it was a part of her pretty much.

"Far from it boss. As long as i got paid, i'm perfectly fine with this." he said with a slight chuckle, his gun over his shoulder, it looks rather roughed up, to say the least. She scoffed and rolled her eyes at the sight of the gun he was holding. "What? Got a problem with me?"

"None what so ever, at least you. Your so called gun, on the other hand. Yes. Hold out your hands." He did as he told and she went through her pip-boy till she found what she wanted, the pip-boy scanned his hands and plopped down a scoped .50 cal hunting rifle. It was completely modified out, to bring the best out of the once horrible gun.

"Look, I don't want you spending money on me. I can handle that much myself." he was going to give the gun back to her when he noticed her smile on her face. "You didn't buy this, did you?" She shook her head and started to walk off towards Whitechapel Charlie. "Ohohoho, I knew I was going to like you." he chuckled to himself as he went after the black haired girl. This was the start of her story with an ex-gunner, his story with a girl from the past, and most importantly... THEIR story together.


	7. Murder Melody

**Masochistic**

 **Anti-Social**

 **All these things say "make me loco"**

 **Masochistic**

 **Suicidal**

 **All these things make me homicidal!**

 **I don't give a fuck what you think about it,**

 **I'd just as well kill you today.**

 **No more apologies, It's all I can take!**

 **No more regret for the choices that I make,**

 **You say you love me, you hate me**

 **I don't give a fuck today!**

Mccready was wiping the back of his neck with a rag he had in his pocket, it was raining above Goodneighbor. He was keeping a lookout in case one of the neighborhood watches came walking by randomly, Cecilia was in the middle of lock picking into the final of the three warehouses that Charlie needed cleaning in. "You almost done boss?" he asked Cila who was missing from the doorway when he looked back, he walked under the door frame and tried the lock. It opened with a click and slowly opening the door, he saw Cila scanning items, transferring them into her pip-boy. Raising an eyebrow, he went over to her and chuckled softly, "You're full of surprises aren't you?" she looked at him and shushed him, his face the look of betrayal.

"Hush Mccready. They're upstairs. Now come on, you watch my back. I got a weapon with a silencer attached. You don't, and I really don't need the whole town of Goodneighbor wondering why this warehouse sounds like a war in here." she whispered to the now crouching Mccready, as she snuck upstairs before they reached the second set up stairs, she tossed him something. It was a bulky but small box, "Use it, they can't spot you unless you shoot or move." she just threw him a stealth boy, did she not believe in his ability to stay hidden?

"Hey now, I don't need something like this, I can hide easily enough thank you very much," he grumbled softly, he didn't need someone looking out for him. He can watch his own back and there was a chance of him getting shot up, looking like Swiss cheese. Whatever that was. She scoffed softly as she pulled out her hunting rifle from her pip-boy, a sinister grin on her face.

"I don't doubt your skills, I just rather you not scare the crap out of me and I accidentally shoot you. I'd feel bad," she admitted to him, when she is going to kill, she shoots whatever that moves. Dogmeat didn't have that problem, she knew better than to shoot the dog that was wearing a bright pink bandanna. Cracking her fingers, she walked up a few steps of the stairs to see someone sleeping on a very worn out sleeping bag, the others sounded like they were upstairs. Pulling out a knife that she kept on her left sleeve, right above her elbow, she carefully walked over to the guy.

"Sweet dreams sandman." she smiled at the guy before flipping the knife's blade downwards in her hands and slamming it into the back of his head, right underneath his would be the hairline. As soon as the tip of the blade found its mark, her other hand went up to cup the guy's lipless mouth to keep him from screaming out. The crunching of bone breaking found it's way all the way to Mccready who was kneeling by the stairways, who looked a little sick at the sound. Yanking out the blade, the blood that was pooling in the wound squirted out, getting all over her, mainly her face. Licking her lips from the blood, she spat it out with a mixture of saliva and blood. "Nasty creature... Rats like you should be gutted..." she smiled happily at the Ghoul before kicking him over onto his back, her hand still on his mouth. He's still alive but he can't move anymore, the blade was coated with Radscorpion poison and she severed his spine, ghouls don't die that easily.

Leaning downwards so she was looking him in his brown eyes, she waved the blood coated blade slowly, almost tauntingly, in front of his face. His eyes showed the fear that he didn't want to show, he knew he was going to die, the reason for something that didn't involve this girl. Clicking her tongue against her teeth, she drove the blade into his throat, the serrated edges severing his vocal cords. Dropping her hand from his face, she straightened up, the blade still in his neck as he started to choke on his own blood. He couldn't move, he couldn't breathe, he was dying, slowly. Soon the blood started to pool around his body from both wounds, dripping from his mouth as his eyes went dark, never to light up again.

Deciding to leave the knife there, she was going to get it after she got the rest of these rats in the warehouse. Sneaking up the next flight of stairs, at least two of them, she peeked her head around the corner to see at least three of them here. One was leaning up against a wall, smoking a cigarette, minding his own business. While the other two were in a very stressful game of... of... checkers with bottle caps. Shaking her head, she grabbed her gun that was relaxing on her back, kept attached to the leather chest she was wearing. Taking aim at the gun against the wall, he was the first to go, they wouldn't notice, but even if they did, they'd be dead before the other guy hit the floor.

Mccready was to her left side, he was there in case the others heard the commotion downstairs and come running down. Psht. Her gun went off, the air blowing back her bangs slightly, the scar barely hidden shown on her left side. The bullet went flying through the air, hitting its target, square between the eyes. His blue eyes rolled up and his body went limp, he slumped against the wall and slide to the floor with a dull thud, the two ghouls didn't notice the guy being shot but they sure did notice him slumping to the floor. "Hey, what the hell? Mikey?" the one with it's back turned to Cecilia got up first, his deep voice full of concern. Getting up to check on the now dead Mikey, Cecilia aimed at the other ghoul who was still looking at the checkerboard.

Looking up, for some strange reason, he noticed the young girl right there, he was about to say something to the other ghoul when a bullet flies to his mouth, it managed to cut his tongue right in half, blood filled his mouth. Right when he was about to scream for the other one yet another bullet went through his head, he fell to his side, with a not so silent thud. The ghoul turned around to see his other friend dead on the floor, "What the hell?! Show yourself!" he yelled, he had his sub-machine gun out, his finger on the trigger.

Standing up so the ghoul could see her, she whistled for him to notice her when he was looking at anywhere but the stairs. "You motherfucker! You'll pay for that!" lifting up his gun to shoot her in the chest, she lifted her little silent .10 mm pistol and pulled the trigger before he managed to pull his own. The bullet ran through, splattering his brains all over the checkerboard he had his mind wrapped around earlier. "Well, looks like the game blew your mind." she joked a bit, knowing very well that was a bit... weird to joke about.

Her ears twitched a bit when she heard coughing up on the last floor that they had to clear, putting her .10 mm back in its holster on her hip, she touched the other .10 mm that was on her thigh, that one was her favorite. Grabbing the gun that was laying on the ground, she looked at Mccready who looked rather sick at the scene he just saw. "Was that really necessary boss?" he whispered his question to her, she looked at him and sighed softly. She gives him a thumbs up before heading to the broken ceiling that was used as stairs. Does she have something against Ghouls? He wasn't sure, but he was hoping that it was just because he was a ghoul and not because he was a target in their mission.

Mccready was looking at the dead ghoul who was bleeding all over the floor when he heard, 3 muffled shots coming from upstairs. Shaking his head, he got up from his crouched position when he heard gunshots. It wasn't muffled, it sounded like a sub machine gun, seeing the gun that she was using fly past him and land on the floor, he grabbed his gun that she gave him and he ran upstairs like the devil was on his heels. Finally getting upstairs, he saw Cecilia laying face down in a pool of blood and a dead trigger man in the corner, his hands still on his weapon.

Cecilia wasn't moving, she didn't look like she was even breathing. Feeling a wave of fear wash over him for a strange reason, he walked over to the dead Cecilia. Going down on one knee, he placed his hand on her shoulder when her eyes shot open. "GAH!" he screamed in shock and fell backward, landing on his ass. His heart beating so fast it might break through his chest. "Holy cra-crud boss. Do NOT do that to me. I'm much too young to die from a heart attack. Sheesh..." he breathed out a shaky breath as he got up. Cecilia was laying down in the puddle of blood, her now red army fatigue stained by the liquid.

Getting up by jumping and landing on her feet, she bent down and pulled a bullet that lodged itself in her leg armor, barely hitting the armor and missing her artery. "Oh come on, 30 something isn't a bad age to die," she told him as she was searching her body for the bullets that caused her to be thrown, she yanked a bullet from her shoulder armor, she whined softly, saying something about it stinging.

"Come on... I'm not that old boss, I'm only 22..." He scratched the back of his head, she stopped looking for bullets in her armor. A confused as hell look on her face, she was trying to figure out if he was pulling her leg or not.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, I'm 22. Why?"

"Did you see where it flew off to?" She changed the subject quite quickly when he asked her the reason why she was so shocked about his age. Mccready was wondering what she was talking about when he figured it was her gun, he pointed downstairs from his sitting position. "Thanks." She quickly ran down stairs, jumping from the little hole that was next to the makeshift stairs, landing with a thud, she scanned the area to see her gun next to the dead knife ghoul. "That works out..." She picked up her weapon and yanked the blade from the ghoul, wiping his blood on her leg. "Mccready. Let us go back to The Third Rail, Charlie owes us some caps.", she yelled to the hired gun who was slowly walking down the stairs, shaking his head in defeat.

He noticed that she was limping slightly but he didn't take much attention to that after a few seconds as she quickly ran down the stairs. "Well, this is going to be fun..." he said to himself, walking past the body that she killed with ease with a knife that was smaller than his "Mccready! Hurry up!" he heard the girl yell and he sped up a bit, not wanting her to get mad at him. She kind of scared him.


	8. Battle Born

**Once upon a time**

 **I swore I had a heart**

 **Long before the world I know**

 **Tore it all apart**

 **Once upon a time**

 **There was a part of me I shared**

 **Years before they took away**

 **The part of me that cared**

"Hey boss, I've been wondering this for awhile now but that weapon you've got attached to your hip there..." Maccready was sitting next to a blasted tree trump while he was enjoying lunch in front a settlement. Cecilia was within hearing distance but she wasn't too close to the hired gun, it's not that she didn't trust him. She doesn't trust anyone, she didn't want to bother him while he was eating. "Is that a claw of some sort?" Cecilia heard him open the Nuka-cola bottle that she had given him a few minutes ago.

"We've been traveling for a month and you barely gather enough balls to ask about it?" Cecilia shook her head in disbelief that the hired gun didn't recognize the claw. But then again, most people who've seen one usually end up as lunch. Unclipping the weapon from her right hip, her exploding pistol is on her left side, she held it in her hand for a moment. Her fingertips gently caressed the weapon that meant the world to her, a gentle smile on her face. "Here." She didn't give him a warning before tossing it over to him, the weapon falling between his legs landing claws first into the dirt. The weapon being embedded into the dirt with ease, she looked over her shoulder to see a stunned Maccready. "Just pick it up already."

"A warning would've been nice you know! You almost castrated me with that thing!" He growled at her before taking a deep breath in order to calm himself down. Shaking his head when the girl didn't say anything, he placed down the empty bottle to pick up the weapon. Putting his hand through it, "I wonder..." He mumbled to himself as he stood up from the ground to start swiping at the air around him. Grunting a bit when he tried to swipe faster, he noticed that the claws were familiar. "Wait... Why do I have the feeling I've seen this before...?" He was trying to figure out the feeling of fear that was starting to eat at him.

"Deathclaw." Cecilia's voice was heard behind Maccready, which caused the man to turn around with a look of amazement, "I made it." She was waiting for her weapon back, as she was doing so she was staring off into the distance. Maccready was calling her name a few times before she finally came back. "What? Oh, thanks." She took the Gauntlet back from Maccready before clipping it back to her hip.

The man decided to sit back down at his spot so he can enjoy a cigarette before she had them move out once more. Opening the pack, he cursed underneath his breath as he tossed the pack away from him, he had nothing left. Shaking his head, he knew he should have bought some packs from the trader before they left about an hour ago. They might be able to catch up to them if she was going that way. But highly unlikely since she told them they were on their way back to her home after visiting this settlement. It was a near the ocean, something manor. There was a statue in the middle of the grounds. Pulling his hat down over his eyes, he wondered why people said the ocean view was breathtaking... It looked horrible.

Cecilia noticed that pack that Maccready threw away, he must be out of cigarettes. What a fucking idiot. She was leaning up against a tree that was still somehow growing, just watching the brunette. Shoving her left hand into the pocket of her dirty army pants, she pushed herself off of the tree just using her back to walk a few steps over to Maccready. Taking her hand out of her pocket, she walked past him in order to drop the fresh pack of cigarettes for her companion. "Here. I don't need 'em." She placed her empty hand back into her pocket before turning the corner into the settlement.

Maccready picked up the pack of cigarettes from the dirt between his legs, the pack in his hand. "You don't smoke these, do you, Cecilia? You're actually nicer than you want to let on." He opened the pack to pull one out, placing it into his mouth, he lit it with the lighter he had in his pocket. While he was enjoying his smoke, he overheard some settlers talking about Cecilia. At least some rumors.

"I'm surprised that Preston trusts that girl. I don't trust her, even if she did kill the ghouls that lived here." The older settler with graying hair spat out, wiping the back of his neck with a dirty rag. "Don't tell me you trust her being here, with us doing all the hard work of keeping this place afloat?"

The woman he was talking to looked shocked that the man didn't trust the girl who saved them from living in the wasteland. "You must be joking! I don't see anything wrong with her. She is cute, strong, young. Just like someone I know." The woman laughed as she pointed at herself, the man not looking amused with her. "What? You don't think that about her?"

"Hardly. Look, you never once questioned her? Not even a little bit with how she acts?" The man was obviously beating around the bush, not wanting to say anything yet. He got annoyed when the woman shook her head, not seeing the apparent obvious facts that were laying around. "Fine. I'll tell you." The woman leaned in close, in order to hear what the old man was going to say. He looked around to make sure that no one was listening in and whispered in her ear. "She's supposed to be dead."

The women blinked a few times before smacking the old man on the arm. "That's the stupidest reason for not trusting anyone. Fuck, I thought it was something like that she used to be part of a raider gang." The old man cleared his throat when the lady realized that she spoke the truth. "What? No way. Which one?!" The woman was starting to get nervous, she didn't want to be near an ex-raider, even if she didn't do anything to harm them. Yet. That was the major thing, raiders always harm people for food, shelter, or just because they could. And no one could be able to tell when Cecilia could finally snap and turn back into a raider.

The man looked around to see if the girl in question was in earshot, she wasn't. At least from what he could tell or see. "Ever heard of Deathclaws?" The woman just rolled her eyes, everyone knew about the monsters. And the large animal. But that still doesn't explain what he was asking her. "She used to be a part of them but for some reason, she was kicked out."

Maccready stopped paying attention right around that time. He's heard of the Deathclaws, but for some reason, he just can't imagine Cecilia being part of them. Or why they would kick her out. He'll just go ask her. Getting up from his seat on the ground, he went into the settlement to try and find her, it was a small little manor, it couldn't be that hard to find the girl here.


	9. Sail

When Maccready would find Cecilia, he would find her sitting down in the back of the house with her back resting up against the wall. He stopped walked to take a moment to look at the girl. She looked peaceful with her eyes closed and her arms resting on her knees that were propped up. He wondered if he should really ask her that stupid question. If that was true then he wouldn't know what to say and if it wasn't true, he might have insulted the girl. Sighing softly, he decided that he would just go sit down by her and wait till she wakes up. Taking a step forward, his shoes stepped on a dead branch making a _snap_ noise.

Cecilia's eyes flew open and before he could react to anything, he found himself staring at a gun aimed at his head. She was on one knee with her arms supporting her combat rifle that she named King. Her eyes were cold as death and her finger was already on the trigger, she was about to kill him. Her gaze softened when she realized who the hell she was pointing her gun at. Her eyes looked worried for a moment before she looked away from the short man. She took her finger off of the trigger and went back to the position she relaxing before in. Her gun was on her right side, the shadow made it hard to see it.

Maccready was still in shock so he just continued on what he was doing before. He went to sit down by the girl who was now looking at the sea instead of having her eyes closed. Wondering what the girl was doing here with her gun out, he was going to ask when she suddenly lifted it up and shot a random bird flying over the ocean. The bird had it's head shot clean off before it fell heavily towards the crashing waves below. Was she bored with nothing to do? Or did she not like birds? Cila placed her chin lazily on her knee, her eyes glancing at Maccready every once in awhile. 'Wow... At this angle he really does look like Dam-' Her thoughts were interrupted when Maccready asked her a question. She didn't hear him. "Wasn't listening. What did you say?"

Maccready just sighed heavily as he shook his head, his hat was in his left hand. "So, what are you doing over here? Bored or do you really hate birds?" He wasn't expecting an answer from her since most questions he asked her, she easily avoided. He looked at her and when he saw her surprised face, he laughed. "Why are you so shocked? I was just wondering if you really hate birds." Cecilia couldn't help but laugh a little, she sounded content with them talking for once. "So?" Cecilia just smiled at him before taking aim another bird, shooting it this time in its body. The animal just exploded in a burst of red and guts before it all fell down into the sea.

She put the gun back down next to her before she sighed happily. "Target practice," Maccready asked her if she was serious or not about this being target practice or not. "Yeah, why not? I mean, I can always use a little practice here and there. Everyone does. Birds aren't going to attack you." Cila lifted her gun to aim at a bird that was flying by when she decided to put the gun back down. "Actually, chickens will attack you." She was quiet for a moment before she quickly added, "Don't ask." She took aim at the same bird that she didn't' shoot before, it was sitting on a buoy minding its own business. She couldn't see the bird all that well but she knew it was there.

Sighing softly, she placed her gun on her lap with the barrel facing away from Maccready while she was messing with her pip boy. A gun materialized in front of her, it was something that she rarely used. The name of this gun was Queen, but he only knew that from the engraving on the right side of the gun. Looks crudely made, almost done with a knife. She propped the weapon on her knee and held the gun in her arms. Her leg was taking most of the weight, the gun really was too heavy for her to be carrying then why did she have it? She took aim into the scope and looked at the bird through it. She held her breath and her finger caressed the trigger before it clicked it. The recoil caused the gun to slam into her shoulder, the burst of wind send her bangs flying. Maccready was watching her and he finally managed to see the scar that she kept hidden. He saw it once before but it was a teasing reveal caused by a brahmin licking her face.

She tsked softly before sending the gun away, commenting on how she was off on her aiming with Queen. Looking over to where she shot, he didn't understand why she was complaining, the bird was missing its head. It was just standing there or rather slumped there before falling backward into the ocean. It was a pretty damn good shot, but it seemed like she didn't think so. Maccready then thought it'll be a good idea to show off his skills with shooting birds. The bearded man took aim a flying bird and flew the head clean off before quickly reloading a round into the chamber. With that round in the chamber, he shot the falling corpse through the middle right as it fell out of sight behind some rocks. Cecilia raised an eyebrow before shooting a bird without taking aim using her dot sight. She looked at him and her face said: "You're on."

An hour or so had passed with them talking about random things and shootings at birds. This is probably the most they ever talked to each other ever since they started their journey together. The pip-boy on her arm was playing some background movie so it wasn't so quiet when they weren't saying anything. Maccready was wondering just what station she had on, he never heard any of this songs. However, he couldn't help but tap his foot along with the beat, the word "Freak" keeps popping up, though. Cecilia tapping her finger against her arm as she had them crossed, watching the birds fly past them. No matter how many birds that they shot, more kept coming. She wondered if someone was cloning them or something, it was starting to get ridiculous.

Maccready cleared his throat in order to get her attention, and for once she was actually paying attention. She gestured that she was paying attention to him by waving her hand at him lazily as she was staring into the distance. "So... Are you impressed yet?" Cecilia just looked at him, not sure what he was getting at. "I told you I was a damn good shot." He seemed rather proud of himself, she wondered if she should mess with him a little bit.

The black haired girl uncrossed her arms and stretched a bit before resting her hands on her lap. "I dunno. I haven't really noticed." She said that last part with a yawn, the yawn was unexpected, she had to admit that. Maccready seemed puffed up when she said that, the yawn didn't seem to help either.

"Oh come on!" He exclaimed with annoyance, a smirk on his lips as he spoke some more. "You've got skills." He took a moment to let it sink in just to only give him some more credit afterward. "I'm sure you know talent when you see it." He had a smile on his face, trying to get her admit that he was, in fact, a good shot.

Cecilia just rolled her eyes, a smile almost on her lips. "Yeah, yeah. I suppose so."

"There you go. That wasn't too hard to admit, was it?" He asked her in a teasing tone, she seemed more relaxed. He sat up straight, almost like he was going to start bragging. She was right. "I'm completely self-taught, you know. Picked up a sniper rifle when I was ten and I never looked back." He slumped back against the wall, his hand was on his own rifle as he spoke again. "Always thought it was smarter to hit my targets at long range. I mean, why take chances, right?" Maccready just sighed softly as he leaned his head back against the wall, looking up at the small flys flying around. "Besides, I had to come up with every trick in the book to survive the Capital Wasteland."

Cecilia turned her head to look at him, she heard about that place a few times. Even stole some guns from a trader who came from over there. She furrowed her eyebrows for a moment, "What were you doing in the Capital Wasteland?"

Maccready closed his eyes and started to let himself remember. "I was born there. Lived underground in a place called Little Lamplight with a bunch of other kids. Left there when I was around sixteen." He laughed to himself for a moment before saying what was on his mind. "We kind of had a policy there... No adults. When you were sixteen, you packed up and left." He realized how that would sound to anyone else. "I know it sounds crazy, but having adults around was something we couldn't trust."

She thought about it for a moment until "How could a bunch of kids survive without help?" She was really trying to wrap her head around it for a moment, she couldn't figure out an idea. She was actually interested in his story a little bit.

"Everyone pulled their own weight. Just like a colony you'd find anywhere, we all had our designated jobs and we watched each other's back." When she would look over at him, she'd see the biggest smile on his face, his voice had a hint of laughter in it. "Can you believe I was actually the mayor for a while? Me?" Cecilia shook her head to the question. "Crazy, I know."

She couldn't help but think that was pretty brave, she might as well tell him what she thought this time. "Pretty brave, a bunch of kids living alone like that." She wouldn't understand how that felt, at least for the most part.

He sighed softly and shrugged a bit. "I don't know. Looking back on the whole thing, I think we were just lucky." There was a slight pause for a moment before he continued on with his story. "Anyway, when I hit sixteen, I ended up wandering the Capital Wasteland for a while. I took the odd job here and there, but things were pretty hot with the Brotherhood of Steel running the show." It was like right on cue a vertibird just flew past the manor, shaking the building. Cecilia couldn't help but let out a snicker at Maccready's look of disgust. He ignored that little flyby. "So I hitched a ride with a caravan and made my way North until I ended up here. Made a pretty decent name for myself before I heard that the Gunners needed some extra sharpshooters. Biggest mistake of my life."

Cecilia didn't say anything, she didn't have the right. "They were animals. Killed anything that moved if it got in their way." That sounded a little familiar to her, a little too close to home. "I went with it for a while, because the caps were good. But, I dunno, I guess it started to catch up with me... So I quit." Cecilia understood what he meant by that, he did it for the money. Her story was a bit different. "Which pretty much brings us to now." Maccready decided to look at Cecilia. "So there you have it, my whole life in a nutshell."

She looked at him before looking a back at the ocean, the waves crashing loudly against the rocks. "Sounds like the road can be a lonely place... until you meet someone to share it with." Cecilia wasn't really thinking about how it would sound to Maccready. She had someone else on her mind when she spoke.

"Err. I... well, I never thought of it that way." He seemed almost shy for a moment there, stuttering a little bit. He was looking at her with a smile on his face, "Maybe that's why I feel so comfortable telling you all of this." Cecilia tensed up at the softness in his voice, she didn't enjoy that too much. "Look, I know I tend to be a pain in the a..." He quickly stopped himself before saying the word, "I mean, I know I tend to be arrogant and I come off like I want to be alone." He propped his arms on his knees, "Nothing could be farther from the truth. Being alone scares the heck out of me. Now that we've been traveling for a while, I'm beginning to realize how much I missed having someone I could depend on." Those words made her stomach tighten, she felt guilty. Why would she feel guilty? It's his choice to say this thing to her. "I just wanted you to know that I'm going to do everything I can to see that it stays this way. Well, that's all I had to say. Hope you got something out of all of that. I know I did."

Cecilia saw that Maccready was about to get up until she groaned softly. "Stay. I guess it's only fair to tell you my life since you told me yours." She sighed softly and rested her arm on her knee that she just propped up. Maccready wasn't expecting her to tell him anything after he told her his life. "I'll start when I woke up I guess."


	10. Die Tomorrow

**These situations are elevating**

 **Where dreams are lost all hope is gone**

 **We can't go on living like this**

 **Manipulated by information**

 **All right is wrong all wrong is right**

 **We can't go on living like this**

 _Cecilia woke up with a start, her body was freezing and she couldn't see anything very well. She wasn't sure what had happened but she does remember that she is in cryo, and she touched the glass in front of her. The touch caused a shock to run through her fingers, that was colder than she thought it'll be. She was starting to panic, what happens if no one was going to come save or get her out? Was she going to die in this metal tube? She was banging on the door of the cryo tube when all of a sudden the tube opened. She wasn't expecting that to happen so she ended up falling face first into the ground, the blue jumpsuit ripping on her left arm in the process. "He-hello?" She called out to hear nothing respond to her, it was just accidental that her pod had opened._

 _Wiping off the dust that was on her clothes, she blinked for a moment. Why was there dust on her? She looked around her to see bodies of people everywhere around her trapped in the pods still, her heart was pounding in her chest. These people, they were dead! She was shaking softly when she remembered what happened to her mother, was her father also dead?! She slowly walked over to the pod to see her dad frozen in the pod, he looked awfully still, almost reminding her of the other people. Her vision started to blur from the tears that started to form over her eyes. "D-daddy?" As soon as the first drop spilled over her eyes, the tears kept on flowing down her cheeks. "DAD!" She started to bang on the glass to his pod, no matter how much she pounded on the glass, her dad didn't wake up. "Daddy! Wake up dammit! Don't just stay asleep there, you have to wake up!"She just kept on banging on the glass, she didn't know what else to do. "You promised me..." Her knees gave out on her and she fell to the ground, silently sobbing to herself. Her arms wrapped around her body as she cried out her feelings._

 _She has been crying at least an hour when she forced herself to stand up, using the pod to support her body. She had a hand over the glass, her tears still falling down her cheeks. She looked behind her to her mother's body, she looked also way too pale and still. She tightened her eyes and gritted her teeth. Her parents are dead, she's all alone in this world. She has no body else left in the world that knows who she is. She was going to start bawling her eyes again when she realized that her younger baby brother was kidnapped. She didn't care much for him but her father loved Shaun, probably even more than he loved her. He may be dead now... But Shaun is still alive and she knows that if her father knew that, he would search for him. She sniffed and wiped her eyes using the blue suit, the tears staining the color darker where they touched._

 _She touched her fingertips the glass, the cold wasn't as bad as the inside but it was still there. Cecilia still felt some tears fall down from her eyes as she looked at her dad. "I'll find Shaun, even if I have to look every under rock." She closed her eyes and screamed as loud as her voice would let her. The scream echoed around the small room until there was silence again. She remembered the way back to the front door, now she had to hope that she was able to get it open. She took a deep breath and held it for a moment before she made up her mind. She turned around from her father's pod and headed towards the door. While she was walking, a flashing button to her left caught her attention for a moment before she shook her head. She didn't want to mess with anything she didn't know how to use. Her mother drilled that rule into her head._

 _She got to the door and knew the button to open the door was right there, all she had to do was touch it, she just had to touch the button. Shakily lifting up her arm, she clicked the button and watched the door open, to reveal an empty hall way filled with spider webs and dust. The air was horribly stale. She was starting to hyperventilate as she took a step forward. She clicked the other side of the door's button to close it behind her._

"You got out before your dad?" Cecilia nodded to Maccready's question, she waited to see if he had anymore. "Wait, you said that you were going to go look for your brother since you thought your dad was dead. Did you find him?"

Cecilia shook her head, laughing softly as she did. "I didn't even have the chance to get pass Concord to start my search!" She had a soft smile on her face remembering the past. The present just feels like a long dream that she never could wake from. Maccready had asked her something but she wasn't paying attention, like always. "Repeat again."

He was slowly getting used to her zone out moments. Before he'd get so pissed but he's fine with repeating himself. But don't get him wrong, it still ticks him off at times but it's to be expected. He sucked in a breath and he grumpily said, "What happened?"

She looked over at him and a sparkle in her eyes appeared, that look always freaked him out. It was the same look that she gave right before she killed someone. She looked so happy, though, it was strange. "Raiders."


	11. Kill Everyone

**Does everything have to resort to violence?**

 **If you think you can hide, go and try it**

 **Now let's let the fucking gun break the silence**

 **Close your eyelids**

 **Another shot and then here come the sirens**

 **I thought I told you to keep fucking quiet**

 _Cecilia didn't know where she was going but all that she knew is that she had to find her way out of the vault first, and she knew just how to do that. There was a way through the main hallways, luckily everything wasn't closed off. She was walking through the hallway when she noticed something in the corner of the room. Tilting her head to the left slightly, she slowly walked up to the strange object to see that it was a skeleton wearing a blue suit. She nearly screamed when she saw what it was but she quickly cupped her mouth. She started to tear up once again as she backed up a bit and closed her eyes. She then took off running with her eyes closed, not wanting to see any more dead skeletons. Wait, of course, skeletons are dead. This isn't a video game._

 _Becuase her eyes were closed, she didn't know that she was going to run into a wall that had the emergency protocols switch on it. Running smack into the wall, she fell backward onto her rear to open her eyes to flashing lights everywhere. "Shit!" She didn't know what she did but she didn't like the looks of it. She quickly got up and started to run down the hallway, ducking underneath the slow moving doors, she managed to get through the last door just in time to see the entrance to where this hell started. The gates were still there, she even noticed that skeletons were also everywhere here. She held back yet a shiver of fear as she shakily headed to the platform to unlock the door to the vault, it has to be the big red button underneath the clear hatch. It's always that in the cartoons, or a bomb, but they wouldn't have a bomb right here! Oh well, here goes to luck. She went to open the hatch, but it wouldn't budge even with her using all her strength to try to rip it upwards. Was it stuck? She furrowed her eyebrows as she stepped back to step on a hand._

 _She quickly jumped away from the dead thing to see a strange looking device on the arm, it's a pip boy? She's heard of these things but she hasn't seen them before, that's strange. She bent over and was about to touch the device when her mind mentioned it was touching the skeleton. She growled and quickly grabbed the device, ripping the arm from the socket. She screamed as loud as she could when it was still in the pip boy. The arm slipped off land landed on the floor with a rattle. It grosses her out way too much but it was better than staying in here with it, she was either stuck in this room with this thing or going outside... Outside sounded better than this stupid prison that she was currently stuck in. She ignored the goosebumps she got when putting it on her arm, the thing was a bit big but she can get used to it. She kicked the arm away from her, kicking it off of the ramp to hear it clatter some more. She just grumbled to herself before unplugging the weird looking plug and plugged it into the hole like thing. She hoped this worked, amazingly enough, it did!_

 _She watched the clear hatch open and she undid the plug to see if it would stay open, it did. She looked at the oversized pip boy and just undid the hatch on it. She gently placed it next to the bones, whispering something about not wanting to be haunted. She pressed the button and heard loud sirens going off one more time to see the vault door start to open slowly by rolling to the right, the ramp also going outwards. She swallows her fear down her throat and carefully goes to the ramp by crossing the moving doors. She doesn't know what is waiting for her outside, but it's not going to be good, it's going to be bad._

 _When Cecilia reached the top of the vault elevator, she couldn't believe her eyes. Everything was dead, everything was either dirt or blasted trees. Skeletons littered the area around her, and random boxes were everywhere. She didn't like the idea of stealing from boxes but no one was around and blue made her stand out. She had to find clothes, she was going to go to the nearest box when she saw a skeleton wearing a pair of army clothes. She looked around and shook her head, she wasn't going to go that far, not when she has other options. She spent an hour looking for other options, not bothering to go check out her old neighborhood, nothing was there she figured. She had no other options! She had only the skeletons wearing that strange green outfit, it was dirty. That wasn't the point, it was a dead person! She closed her eyes and breathed in and out rapidly before stomping over to the person and started to undo the buttons trying not to think about what she was doing. When she got to the part of having to take it off, she spent the entire 20 minutes hyperventilating as she tried her best to take it off without touching the body. She took a breath to scream when she noticed that it was finally free._

 _"I'm going to regret this..." She told herself as she ran over to the little RV thing and closed the door behind her. She noticed the skeleton was a guy so she threw a random rag over his eye sockets, "don't look!" She yelled at the thing before undressing uneasily, not realizing how naked she truly felt now that she was just in her undies and bra. She quickly jumped into the outfit and found it wasn't as bad as she thought it'll be, just very ratty looking. Good thing she wouldn't meet anyone, she didn't want to look so badly at first meetings. After he was dressed, she opened the door to the little RV and jumped out of the container. She didn't know where she'd be going to go look for her brother but she figured that they might be in Concord. It's literally the next city over to Sanctuary. She used to sneak out all the time to go visit the bookshop there, she could get there easily without being noticed._

 _Getting to Concord took a lot longer than she thought it'll take, she had to take a detour from her normal way to getting there... A huge blasted tree was in the way and getting inside of the water made her feel sick, so she had to walk across the almost breaking bridge, that nearly crashed underneath her weight. After that, she had to walk down the street to get to the city, the buses weren't running anymore and that how she got there before. Took around half an hour to get there, and when she did get there, everything was eerily barren and quiet. Wouldn't there be people here sleeping in the empty stores or at least trying to make something to eat? Was everyone dead?! She slowly started to freak out as she was walking through the backstreets of the town when she saw the main street heading towards the Museum of Freedom. Carefully walking over some trash cans and trash, she stepped into the street and looked around._

 _She didn't see anything that would show that people were living here, no voices, no smell of food. Not even screaming. Was she all alone in this town? She might as well go into the Musem of Freedom to spend the night there, it was close to sunset and she didn't want to be outside in the dark. She didn't know what would be lurking in the darkness, maybe some bad people or some kind of monster that'll eat her fingers and toes. As she was getting closer to the Musem, maybe half way there she heard some people whispering. Was someone here?! "Hello!? Can you help me!?" She yelled out into the emptiness around her, hoping the people would be able to help her out with her search of finding her brother. The whispers stopped completely and shuffling can be heard the closer and closer she got._

 _She took one more step in front of her and she heard a loud bang echo all around her. She felt her right shoulder explode in searing pain and her feet had left the ground. She slid across the assault, the pain in her shoulder was causing her to cry heavily. She didn't know what was happening, or why this was happening to her. She was holding her arm with her left hand, she couldn't feel her arm anymore but she knew it was still attached to her shoulder. She was laying on her back with her vision slowly blackening with white dots everywhere from the dazed of being hit so suddenly. That's when she heard voices, she couldn't speak out from the pain so she just listened for a little bit. "Hey, nice shot! You totally caught the bitch by surprise!" The man was laughing his ass off as they were walking towards her. She started to use her legs to push her body away from the voices, they weren't going to help her. She had that gut feeling of fear that her father told her about when you thought you were going to die. "Dude, she's still alive. What the fuck? I thought she was dead, she got some air there too."_

 _When they got closer to her, one of the people stood on her foot, making it harder to move away from them. She saw their face and they were covered in blood. The fear in her face made him laugh even harder than he was before. She was using her other foot to kick his legs off of her, it wasn't helping any. It made him laugh, even more, he looked like he was having the time of his time with her being scared and in pain. She was still crying, she wanted to go home. She wanted to go back in the tube. When the others came closer to her so she can see them, she didn't know what to do. "Oi, you're still alive aren't cha?" The person with the crude looking gun asked her, Cecilia didn't do anything. She even stopped crying since she couldn't cry anymore. "Your eyes are open, so you must be alive. Rex, sit her up." The guy on her foot stepped off of her and was standing behind her head. Using his leg, he forcibly pushed her into a sitting position, the pain in her arm was burning even worse than before._

 _The person with the gun walked up to her and was standing in front of her, a strange look in his eyes. "You're really stupid for coming here by yourself little girl." The guy then placed the gun on Cecilia's lap, it was heavy for its size. Taking off of his finger gloves, he looked at the others who were scoffing at his actions. "Shuddap. I don't want blood on my gloves!" Cecilia didn't know what he was talking about as she clung to her arm, the blood dripping over her fingers making them slick and slimy. "Let's see the damage shall we." He snapped his fingers and she found the guy holding her up with his knee using his strength to force her arm down to her side and holding it there. She was started to breath faster as she was freaking out once more, what were they going to do to her? He then sat on her lap, basically straddling the girl, he was way too close for comfort now. In the blink of an eye, he cupped his large, dirty hands over her mouth and stuck his finger into the bullet wound. She screamed as loud as she could, the sound sounded muffled but her screams were heard as he was twisting his finger inside of the hole._

 _The guy behind her checked the other side of her shoulder and shook his head. "From the looks of it, it went through completely. You got the muscles, so she can't use this arm for awhile. Keep or trash it?" She was hyperventilating using her nose, the guy cupping her mouth pulled out finger from her flesh and wiped it on her face. Her blood smearing on her cheek, mixing in with the salty tears flowing down her pale face. "Dunno. Go ask the boss. I'll stay with the brat to make sure she doesn't die on us before we figure out what to do with her. I won't break her!" The one behind her just shook his head before walking away from the two of them._

 _When she looked at the man who stuck his finger in her arm, she felt a shiver ran down her spine. He was looking at her strangely. He kept staring into her eyes, she looked away from him. The tears were forming as she slowly felt her arm go numb from the pain. While she was looking away, she flinched at the sound of metal being scraped against something. Looking at the man, she spotted him looking at a knife's blade. Was he checking to see if it's sharp? What was he going to do? The guy placed a hand over her heart and she was leaning back as far as she could go without falling down, he still had his hand on her chest. "Relax sweetie, I'm not going to break you." He cracked a smile and started to laugh happily. "Not yet at least!" He gently laid her back on the ground, the blood from her arm being soaked up by her clothes._

 _He leaned towards her face with his lips close to her cheek, she shut her eyes shut. Feeling his lips on her cheek, she felt like she was in the most danger now. Something was poking her thigh, something hard... She slowly opened her eyes to see what he was doing. He was messing with his gloves, the handle of his blade was being pressed against her thigh. She sighed softly at the relief of it not being what she thought it was. Wait, why did her mind go there?! Her thoughts were interrupted when she noticed him pick the knife back up and bring it to her face. "You know, I did say I wasn't going to break you... But I said nothing about hurting you. Or take a piece off of you for myself..." He murmured to the trembling girl underneath him._

 _In one line, he carefully slides the knife up to her forehead, just above the eyebrow over her left eye. The tip of the blade kissing her skin gently enough to make it turn red but not rough enough to cause it to weep red. Pulling out a rope, he told her to give him her wrists. She would then start to fight him by trashing her hips to try to throw him off. "God damn, stop moving!" The raider was forced to put the blade in his mouth to hold onto it. He managed to grab her wrists using both of his hands, she was really fighting this with whatever strength she had left. He got her wrists together with one hand, his whole hand was large enough to fit her tiny wrists in them. He really overpowered her greatly. Tying her wrists together tightly, the rope started to bite at her skin, she teared up the pain that it was causing. Pinning her wrists down with his left hand, he was close to her face once more with the knife's tip scarily close to her left eye. Taking it with his right hand, he sighed softly. "If you just went along with this, I would have just taken your hair since it's super pretty. But looking closer at you.." He leaned in so his rancid breath was filling her nose, "your eyes are pretty." Her eyes went wide eyed when she heard he was going to take her eye from her. "You so-"_

 _She couldn't finish her insult before his lips slammed against her own, she was squirming underneath his lips and weight. Her screams were muffled. When he removed his mouth, a trail of saliva was connected by their lips. She quickly spat at him, the spit landing on his cheek. He just started to laugh even more at her reaction. "Oh god..." He moaned out softly, rubbing his waist against her lap, "I think you're going to be perfect for me! But first things first, let me take you on a date first..." She was seriously grossed out at this point in time and every time she tried to speak, he'd force his tongue into her mouth. After the third attempted she had given blade was once more at her eyebrow but this time it was nipping her skin, making her red tears drip down her temple. "Don't move." In a slow and painful movement, the blade was traveling down her face. Amazingly, he didn't put the blade to her eye but just kept cutting till it would reach her cheekbone. She was whimpering softly, it wasn't as bad as she thought it'll be but when he placed the knife to the side of her arm, she didn't like where that was going. Basically ramming his mouth onto hers, she was trying her best to keep him from gaining access into her mouth. The tears were stinging her eyes and her cheek as they slowly fell down to the blood pool at her head._

 _He was doing something since he was moving around a bit on top of her, she didn't want to see his face so her eyes were shut tightly. She quickly shot her eyes open when he tied what was his belt around her wrists, the cloth was biting her skin as he was wrapping it tighter and tighter. Cecilia was trying her best to shake him off of her but it was hopeless. Using the belt to pull her wrists up, he didn't seem to have any trouble even though she was trying to pull back, she was now looking into his dark eyes. "You really are fighting this aren't cha?" With her arms in the air, she really couldn't do anything other than looking into his eyes, the blood dripping from her cut wasn't helping any. The man pulled his head back as if he was going to move away from her but instead he headbutted Cecilia hard enough for her to see stars._

 _In the few moments that the young girl was dazed, the raider had dragged her to a pole where he undid the ropes around one wrist to tie her hands behind her. When she had finally came back to her senses, she was tied up to a pole with the raider nowhere in sight. Cecilia was struggling to get her hands out of the rope when she tensed up as she heard someone walking up behind her. She was going to start fighting again when they spoke softly behind her. "Sush. I'm going to get you out of here." She could tell that it was a guy but that didn't mean that she trusted him to get her out. She heard him pull something out, she wasn't sure what but when the ropes behind her were undone she figured it was a knife. Slowly getting up using the pole so she wouldn't fall backward, she looked over her shoulder to see who was the guy who helped her out. "Who are you?" She asked the guy who was putting his pocket knife back into his pocket when he just sighed._

 _He looked up and he had light brown eyes that seemed to remind her of her dad, she furrowed her eyebrows but that only caused her to wince in pain. The light brown eyed man just shook his hat covered head as he was looking at her. "I'm Zack but that's not important right now. We have to leave. Now. Can you walk?" He was speaking softly and quickly, Cecilia was having trouble keeping up with him talking so quickly but she did realize that he asked her a question. She grumbled something being able to walk perfectly fine. The guy didn't believe that for a moment but he held out his arm. "Be my guest then. Follow me." Zack walked in front of her and was waiting for her to move away from the post. "Come on. Hurry it up. We needed to be gone an hour ago."_

 _Cecilia would have glared at the man if she could feel her face but she settled with rolling her eyes at Zack. She stood up straight and without the help of the pole behind her keeping her up, her legs felt numb underneath her weight. She took a single step forward to only have her knees buckle underneath her. Zack cursed under his breath as he slowly helped her back onto her feet, making sure to keep her arm around his chest. He was a bit taller than she was. He was just going to slowly walk her out but when he heard chattering coming towards them, he cursed once more. "Sorry, not sorry." She was about to ask what he was talking about when he just picked her up and held her in his arms. "Gotta go." He quickly told her as he started to run away from the home that she knew._

 _From behind them, she heard a bunch of raiders yelling which caused Zack to start running. The bumping wasn't helping her splitting headache that was starting to form. Gunshots were heard. "Shit shit shit!" He was yelling as he was trying to run even faster but it didn't seem to help him out. He screamed out once more as he fell towards the ground. He made sure to not land on the girl in his arms. Instead, he pushed himself with his right arm and kept on walking. He was limping badly on his right side but he kept on going. Blood was dripping onto her cheek to she looked up to see him biting down hard on his bottom lip. He was forcing himself to keep on going but he yelped in pain one more time before he fell down to his knees. Tears were flowing down his cheeks when a single shot ran through the side of his arms went limp around her as he slumped over to the side._

 _Cecilia freaked out and tried to wake Zack up but while she was doing that, the raiders had walked up to her. She heard someone talking so she looked up to see another young raider smile at her. She felt shivers ran down her spine and before she could react, he hit her with the butt of his rifle. Her vision went black and the only thing she remembers feeling is someone picking her up._

 **(AN: This chapter isn't completed yet. It's just to show I'm not going to vanish for a year again )**


End file.
